Severe wobble is often a combination of multiple items. It is normal and to have people use the parts cannon before finally saying “it must have been X”. Then the next guy starts with that last item and works his way through the list in opposite order.
Tires are a common unit as are rotors. And it is usually in combination with very slightly worn joints. A tiny amount of play in ball joints and or tie rod ends...
Something to understand is NO vehicle should need a steering stabilizer shock absorber. When they come factory with it, is because the manufacturer is covering up inherent design flaws that can be felt while under warranty. Has anyone ever asked a salesman “Does it have a steering stabilizer, because if not -I am walking or your guys are installing one before I buy it!” Of cool not! The entire job of that stabalizer is to “eat” that shake up so you don’t feel the tiny amount that is happening when it begins.
So replacement of the stabilizer becomes an early part to install. The issue with doing that is, you still have some worn parts that now you don’t feel as much. So when a shop is trying to discover what the root cause is- removing the stabilizer for testing gets done in better shops.
What I do is write a list of each part from a rag joint, to steering box, pitman arm, etc,etc. all the way to the tires. Every single connection point. And you have to use major force- as if you are trying to rip it apart- to detect any freeplay.
Things people miss often is tires, rotors, calipers hanging, and steering box.
A mistake often made is the alignment shop used. They get “good deal” at a bigO tires or similar. That’s probably fine when doing normal job. But if you don’t know a shop that has an AMAZING alignment guy- dealership that one. They have the most updated info accounting for the known flaws in design not knowledgeable to he public- the mechanic may not even realize the detail, but follows the mfrs (engineers) instruction of what detail to focus on, and what tolerance is acceptable.
So since your wife is gonna be driving this and especially accounting for her shoulder-
As you remove parts mark them and store them, don’t be afraid to fire the cannon and avoid aftermarket stuff. There is a ton of knock off toyota stuff- eat some money here and visit the dealership. If it was you driving where you could just tighten you grip and deal with it a bit until you find it overtime I would say go so and save money. But you can always save the old parts for later use if half of them aren’t worn out yet.
Btw, drilled/slotted rotors warp faster, it is a performance part and longer life with better manners is not at all what they are for. I have found many, many medium and lower cost drilled/slotted rotors be cut straight but out of balance. And unless you put them on a force reaction lathe that can read it, you will never know.
If you have a different set of tires, like winter tires, get them on there to compare. Hopefully you have them on another set of rims because rims also are an issue. Bang a rock off road, or curb check and the rim is knocked out of balance and can cause this. Something most people never do is check just their rims at a tire shop for balance, out of round, etc. so swap on other rim/tires- Otherwise road force balance them.
Sometimes a best answer for a high mileage vehicle becomes a frame off restoration. You obviously don’t need that. But might think of it as that level rebuilding the front end so it is good to go for the next couple hundred thousand miles all trouble free.
